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The 12-volume ''Micropædia'' is one of the three parts of the
The 12-volume ''Micropædia'' is one of the three parts of the 15th edition
15 (fifteen) is the natural number following 14 and preceding 16.
Mathematics
15 is:
* A composite number, and the sixth semiprime; its proper divisors being , and .
* A deficient number, a smooth number, a lucky number, a pernicious n ...
of ''Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
'', the other two being the one-volume ''Propædia
The one-volume ''Propædia'' is the first of three parts of the 15th edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', intended as a compendium and topical organization of the 12-volume '' Micropædia'' and the 17-volume '' Macropædia,'' which are organ ...
'' and the 17-volume ''Macropædia
The 17-volume ''Macropædia'' is the third part of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''; the other two parts are the 12-volume '' Micropædia'' and the 1-volume ''Propædia''. The name ''Macropædia'' is a neologism coined by Mortimer J. Adler from ...
''. The name ''Micropædia'' is a neologism
A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...
coined by Mortimer J. Adler
Mortimer Jerome Adler (December 28, 1902 – June 28, 2001) was an American philosopher, educator, encyclopedist, and popular author. As a philosopher he worked within the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions. He lived for long stretches in New ...
from the ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
words for "small" and "instruction"; the best English translation is perhaps "brief lessons".
The ''Micropædia'' was introduced in 1974 with 10 volumes having 102,214 short articles, all of which were strictly fewer than 750 words. This limit was relaxed in the major re-organization of the 15th edition; many articles were condensed together, resulting in roughly 65,000 articles in 12 volumes. In general, the 750-word limit is still respected and most articles are only 1-2 paragraphs; however, a few longer articles can be found in the 2007 ''Micropædia'', such as the Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
entry, which takes up a full page.
With rare exceptions (<3%), the ~65,000 articles of the ''Micropædia'' have no bibliographies and no named contributors. The ''Micropædia'' is intended primarily for quick fact-checking and as a guide to the 700 longer articles of the ''Macropædia'', which do have identified authors and bibliographies.
See also
*'' Anabritannica'' *'' Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite''References
Encyclopædia Britannica {{encyclopedia-stub he:המהדורה החמש-עשרה של האנציקלופדיה בריטניקה